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Michael Troughton as Second Doctor Keeps Things in Doctor Who Family

Published Sat, 01 Jan 2022 14:07:12 -0600

When it comes to its Doctor Who audio dramas, Big Finish Productions is looking to keep things in the family with Michael Troughton (Breathless, Retrace) set to take on the role of the Second Doctor- the role originally played on television by his father, Patrick Troughton. Joining Troughton for the new adventures is Frazer Hines's Jamie McCrimmon, the stalwart Scot who's been the companion of this regeneration of the Doctor since 1966's "The Highlanders." But listeners won't have to wait until Summer 2022 to get a sense of what Troughton has to offer, with the actor set to collide with the Third Doctor (Tim Treloar), Dr. Liz Shaw (Daisy Ashford), and the Brigadier (Jon Culshaw) in February's Doctor Who – The Third Doctor Adventures: The Annihilators. Here's an overview of what you can expect:

There's something in the water at Lewgate Docks. Something strange, and green, and deadly. Summoned to the North of England by a mystery informer, the Brigadier finds his investigations hampered at every turn by the local police. Just what are they trying to hide?

While the Doctor uncovers sinister goings-on in the city morgue, Liz attracts the attention of something unearthly. But with Time running out, quite literally, the Doctor, Liz and UNIT aren't the only ones to find themselves targeted by a world-shattering alien menace…

… because they've got a previous Doctor and his best friend Jamie in their sights, too!

"When they phoned up out of the blue and asked, 'How would you feel about playing the Second Doctor?', I sort of had to think about it. I said to myself, 'Well, it would be a really fun thing to try and do,' not to try and recreate Dad's voice perfectly, but to give the kind of emotional fun character that he gave. That's the way I looked at it, so it's a mix of me and Dad, really," Troughton explained when news of the project was first announced. "I talked with Frazer [Hines] about it, and lots of the fun stuff was brought to the recordings by them, ad-libbed. I think it might have been Tomb of the Cybermen when they were at a door, and for some reason, Dad ended up holding Frazer's hand. That wasn't scripted, that was a moment they created together. It's difficult to do that kind of thing on audio but it was that fun inflection in his voice I tried really hard to get."

Doctor Who – The Third Doctor Adventures: The Annihilators is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition box set (on CD at the special price of £19.99) or a digital download (at the special price of £16.99), exclusively from the Big Finish website. Listeners can save money by ordering this title together with the following volume (title TBC) in a bundle for £38 on CD or £33 on download (pre-order here). Plus, The Second Doctor Adventures: Beyond War Games, due for release in July 2022, is also available to pre-order as a collector's edition box set (on CD at the special price of £19.99) or a digital download (at the special price of £16.99)- which you can order here.

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